RECRUITING METHODS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 173, 12 May 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

RECRUITING METHODS.

THE OLD AND THE NEW. One advantage of living, as wc dOj on an island is that, given a strong navy, we need have little wear in invasion. One of the disadvantages is that in times of peace we are likely to think perhaps too little of the possibility of war.

In view, however, of the interest which the Great War has aroused in the subject of recruiting, and in the pros and cons of voluntary and compulsory methods, it may be profitable to examine the recruiting methods of other times and places without advocating any in particular.

With the work of the voluntary system we in this country are all familiar. During the piping times of peace which, with few intervals, characterised the last century, the recruiting of our comparatively small professional army was entrusted to those plausible and picturesque fellows the recruiting sergeants, who were seconded in their efforts by the attractions of showy uniforms and the martial strains of military bands.

But when the outbreak of the Great War in 101-1, when this country had to put in the field vast armies on tne Continental or conscript scale, the old easy-going methods of peace time had to be speeded up. In the first place the patriotic- spirit of the manhood of the nation was so ardent und the voluntary recruiting was on so magnificent and unprecedented a scale that the whoie system of recruiting had perforce to be reorganised and remodelled. When the wave of enthusiasm showed signs of exhaustion the services of the brightest and keenest organisers aad busiess men in the country were enlisted in a gteat publicity or poster campaign. For many months the posters were a familiar feature of the hoardings, combining the dire.-t Tectorial appeal with the more subtle psychological reminder of the test.. This was supported and reinforced by a vigorous speech-making recruiting campaign, and culminated in the Derby scnemc which may be sa ; d to have been 'i voluntary system modelled on conscription.

THE MILITIA SYSTEM. Another system of recruiting which has many advocates, even in these days, is the quota or militia system, which is said to date from Saxon times, the national levy or fyrd having fought at Hastings. The militia, as we know it in modern times, however, may be said to date from 1757, when the regular Army, being absent dunng the Seven Years War, the militia was organised for home defence. In that year an Act was passed providing a fixed number of men (called the quota) should be raised in each county. Each parish had to prepare a list of men between the ages of 18 and 30. The quota was apportioned among the parishes, and the men were then chosen by ballot from the lists. Each man drawn had to serve three years or provide a substitute. Latterly the militia was raised under the Militia Act of 1882, which is a voluntary enlisted Act, but it is worthy of note that the compulsory system with balloting for recruits may be revived at once by an Order in Council,

THE PP.ESS GANG. One of the best known—not to say infamous or notorious—methods of recruiting was that of the "Press Gang," a diastic and often brutal species of compulsion, round which a whole series of stories have been woven.

The practice of impressing seamen for the Royal Navy began so long ago as the year 1355, immediate'}' alter Britain had been ravaged by pestilence. The resources of this country, which was engaged in the long struggle with Franco, were strained to the uttermost, and the .system of impressment was in troduced bv Royal Proclamation.

For centuries afterwards, in any national emergency, impressment was resorted to with more or less vigour. Maitland tells us that on the morning of Easter Monday, 1596, the Lord Mayor of London received Queen Elizabeths command to raise 1000 men with the utmost haste. The Lord Mayor and Aldermen, with their deputies and constables, at once repaired to the churches, and having ordered the doors to lie closed, simply seized and took away the required number of men. They were marched off the same night for Dover, but the news of the reduction of Calais by the Spaniards having arrived, the- pressed men returned to London about a week later. Pressed men were not. however, always so fortunate. The press gangs were armed bands of callous and otten hi utal sailors, who seized and carried olf any able-bodied man they could lay their hands on. ' no press gangs would go to almost any lengths to get suitable men. They thought nothing of knot-k----ing men senseless and Hinging them on board ship like so many sacks. In some cases the Government paid as much as L'o per head for pressed men.

OFTWITTINO THE PRESSMEN. This harsh system of recruiting, so contrary to our modern ideas of liberty and fair play, was continued until the beginning of the nineteenth century. A story is told of a Newcastle sailor who was impressed in the year Wo. He was safely lodged in the house of detention, and the same evening his s.stcr. a young woman of 20, decided to effect his rescue. She went ostensibly to say good-bye to he' brother, who was to be sent away in the tender next morning. She was allowed to have a short interview w.th hint, but during the few minutes they were alone together they contrived to exchange clothes. (In the door being opened, a figure in feminine attire emerged weeping. It was only when it was 100 late that tiie press gang d'«covered the! they had been duped, and that the plucky sister had remained in Ilia' brother's place. Popular sympathy was, of course, altogether in her favour, and she was speedily released Inorder of the magistrate. ft is not generally known that press pang or compulsory methods were also employed to recruit the Arniv. This ocourred in the reign of dark's 1. when N-160 men were required to bring the Parliamentary or "New Model" Army up to strength. No call was made for volunteers, but "<-unity committees" were ordered to impress the required number of able-bodied men. and following noon ties order young men were forcibly carried off from the streets of London and made to serve as soldiers. In Kent n band of recruits had boon forcibly gathered together, hut on the march to the depot tlie recruits turned on their guards, and after overpowering them, captured a manor house near Wroth am. There they defied a'l comers until the bouse was stormed bv a strong military force, when the impressed recruits were dislodged and marched off to serve in the Parliamentary Army.

COMPULSION IN THE PAST. As a matter of fact, it may be said that in almost all our wars, down to th<: end of the eighteenth century, compulsion in one form or another was resorted to. Sometimes it was only applied to particular classes. Thus ono Act provided that men who deserted their families were to bo impressed for military service. This also applied to smugglers. From WX> to 1702 only those imprisoned for debt were liable to become Army conscripts. The system of conscripting convicts and criminals persisted for some time, as witness the following extract from a newspaper of 1793 :—" Mention has already been made that a number of convicts lying .n Newgate Prison, under sentence of transportation, have been permitted to enter into marching regiments; the Crown debtors within the various prisons have now received s ; iiii!ar offers.' 1 At least three regiments of criminals were formed during the Peninsular War, and one of them particularly distinguished itself in the field.

During the Napoleonic wars large sums of money called "bounties", amounting to L\'so, £-10, and sometimes £")0, were offered to likely men to induce them to join the Army. The term of enlistment was then, however, fot life. '1 hese large sums of money proved a strong temptation to needy and unscrupulous men who enlisted, deserted, and re-enlisted over and over again, so as to get the county money. Such men wore called "bounty jumpers.'' and one of the most notorious. Jerry Ryan, confessed to having enlisted 1!) times, netting in bounty nionev no less tnan £l2O. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. Conscription, or the compulsory enrolment of men for naval or military service, may be said to date from the French Revolution. The whole manhood of France then became available for military service, though exemptions were granted for only sons and so on. Until IS7O the annual class drew lots, and those whose lot it was to enter the Army could provide substitutes, 'this system was abolished on the reconstruc tion of the Army in lfe'72, and .atter'there have been theoretically no <i emptions, except for physical or mental incapacity, and about i(J per cent, o» each class were called up. In tr.at year, however, the proportion was raised to 64 per cent. The men of the best physique were selected, and although there were some legal exemptions, the young men of all classes have to serve their term in the Army.

It is sometimes forgotten that durng the American Civil War both s:d<?s had to resort to conscription. In 1862 Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States, called out all white male citizens between the ages of 18 and 45 So great was the wastage and the need for men tha ehttli

for the men that the limit was afterwards raised to 55, and the substitute and exemption conditions were repealed. In the Xorfli the Conscription Act came later. The voluntary response was good, but tho triumph of the Federal arms at Vicksburg and Gettysburg seemed to put new life into the defeated Confederates. President Lincoln called for drafts from the States militia, but these v.vi ■ f .ud '■ i.. and the Federal C< rig,-. ■■- v.'::, .... -.,.. .; pu--:J a general i ■ •!:-' -•pi ; ni, !■■-.' \ii citizen '.etw. .<; t' <■ ;;■•'.-. ': .'0 :■ \vc-.« ordered \ u ••>•. -ik-d .-.. i :;- Ury seivve. it w:;<: • .<>i: ;\ 1;.",.. : tii.it !• vie- wouid be :..■'■ ■; ■ ;. n c;::" • as rcj.io'cl. in. iv-. - iv. v (V .-.\ - p.. nLiiiL'. I ! i til ->■ (-.';.'■! ~p <<\ • . c per coin, reported, but of these about 30 per cent, were rejected as medically unlit. Altogether, from one cause or another, only about 40 per cent, of those examined were retained for service. One serious weakness of the American system was that a man could escape military duties by paving 300 dollars (£60)." One-half'of those examined and passed for service took advtantage of tins means of escape. RECRUITING BY COMBAT.

Some curious and interesting instances of what may be called .•ecruiting by combat have occured from time to time. During the Peninsular War, Sir George (then Captain) Napier was sent to Irelaud to obtain recruits for his regiment. He was in the company of another officer on a similar mission when they encountered ton fine strapping Irish "'ohoys". The young fellows were appealed to, and, like true sportsmen, offered to enlist under the officer that could boat them at running and jumping. Xapier tried—and failed. His feliow-ofFiecr, however, managed to beat the "bhoys," and true to their word, they enlisted in the 43rd. A somewhat similar method was adopted by Ca r t. H. R. Holmes, of the 36th Sikhs, as a means of obtvn ; :i:; Sikh recru'ts for the Indian Army. He challenged all the able-bodied me>i in the villages l.e visited to a bous at wrestling on condition that every m-.n lie defeated was to join the Indian Army. The response to the challenge was so good and the captain proved so adept at wrestling that he secured no fewer than 777 recruits for the grand Mcerut Durbar.